
Class. 



-tkj^y^ 



Book^ 



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Engush- Classic -Series IB 

I 



ft 



'SKELTDN 
WYATTANDSURREY 



> • — — 

Selected Poems. 

b^.- ^ ii 

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ENGLISH CLASSIC SERIES.— No. 97. 



Selected Poems 



Skelton, Wyatt, and Surrey. 



^^/Bitf) Knttolruction anlr 2S):a)lanators Kotes 



BY 

J. SCOTT CLAKK, 

Professor of English Criticism, Syracuse University. 




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Copyright, 1892, 
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^ 



CONTENTS. 



SKELTON. 

PAGE 

Maystfess Margaret Hussey, .7 

The Boke of Colyn Cloute, 8 

Why Come ye not to Court ? 12 

The Bouge of Court, 15 

The Crowne of Lawrell, 17 

The Boke of Philipp Sparowe, 19 

WYATT. 

The Lover Beseecheth his Mistress, 23 

f The Lover Complaineth of the Unkindness of his Love, . . 24 
Of the Means and Sure Estate, . . . . . . .25 

Of the Courtier's Life, . . . . . . . . . 29 

SURREY. 

Vowe to Love Faithfully, 33 

Complaint of the Absence of her Lover, 84 

Description of Spring, 36 

A Complaint by Night of the Lover not Beloved, . . . .36 
Prisoned in Windsor, he Recounteth his Pleasure, ^ . .37 

The Means to Attain Happy Life, . . ^ . . . . 38 

A Praise of his Love, 39 

An Epitaph on Clere, . . . . . . . . „ .40 

On the Death of Sir Thomas Wyatt, . . . . . .41 

To a liady that Refused to Daunce with Him. . . , .42 
How no Age is Content with his own Estate, and How the Age 

of Children is the Happiest, . . . » . . .45 
Dido and JEneas going to the Fieldo . . . . . c 46 



SELECTED POEMS. 



JOHN SKELTON. 

The exact date of Skelton's birtli is unknown; but it was some- 
where about 1460. He studied at both the great English univer- 
sities, and was the Laureate of both. He was tutor to Prince 
Henry (afterward Henry VHL), and was the friend of Erasmus 
and Caxton. Miss Strickland calls him "a ribald and ill-living 
wretch," but Erasmus called him "the light and glory of English 
letters." The truth seems to lie midway between these extreme 
characterizations. Modern critics agree in calling him one of the 
most essentially original of English poets. He was laureated at 
Oxford in 1489, and was made rector of Diss in Norfolk about 
1507. He was severely censured, and perhaps suspended, by his 
diocesan, the Bishop of Norwich, for his buffooneries and his 
satirical ballads against the mendicants. Resorting then to rhyming 
libels, he attacked the dignity of Cardinal Wolsey, was pursued 
by Wolsey's officers, sought refuge in the sanctuary of West- 
minster Abbey, and was protected there by the abbot, Islip, until the 
day of his death, in 1529. He is " almost the only professed poet of 
the reign of Henry VII." Skelton has been fitly called the English 
Rabelais. He has also been compared to Swift and to Hogarth. 
His most characteristic works are " The Boke of Colin Clout," a 
general attack on the ignorance and sensuality of the clergy, 
"Why Come Ye Not to Court ? " a fierce invective against Cardinal 
Wolsey, " Ware the Hawke," a satire upon a brother clergyman, 
" The Boke of Philipp Sparowe," the lament of a lay nun for a 
pet sparrow, and "The Tunnyng of Elinore Rummyng," a dis- 
gusting delineation of the low life of his time. In a less charac- 

5 



6 SELECTED POEMS. 

teristic style Skel ton wrote " The Bowge of Court," an allegorical 
satire of the court of Henry VIII., "Magnificence," a morality 
fairly foreshadowing the drama of the Elizabethan age, and " The 
Garlande of Lawrell," an allegory, in which he portrays himself 
as crowned by the muses. Skel ton has been more condemned 
than praised. D'Israeli first observed that he was "too original 
for some of his critics," and later commentators have accepted the 
truth of Skelton's own characteristic lines : — 

" 'Though my rime be ragged, 
Tattered and jagged, 
Rudely raine-beaten, 
Rusty and motli-eaten; 
If ye take wel therewith. 
It hath in it some pith." 

Skelton was, as Minto says, "a fresh, audacious, boisterous 
pupil of Chaucer," his last true imitator before the rise of the 
Italian influence under Wyatt and Surrey. Skelton's best poems 
are written in what Collins calls " that headlong, voluble, breath- 
less doggerel, which, rattling and clashing on through quick 
recurring rhymes, through centos of Latin and French, and 
through every extravagant caprice of expression, has taken from 
the name of its author the title of Skeltonical verse." Taine calls 
him "a virulent pamphleteer, who, jumbling together French, 
English, Latin phrases, with slang and fashionable words, invented 
words, intermingled with short rhymes, fabricates a sort of literary 
mud, with which he bespatters Wolsey and the bishops. ... It [that 
which he portrays] is a coarse life, still elementary, swarming 
with ignoble vermin, like that which appears in a great decom- 
posing body ; it is life nevertheless, with its two great features 
which it is destined to display : the hatred of the ecclesiastical 
hierarchy, which is the Reformation; the return to the senses 
and to natural life, which is the Renaissance. To specify, then, 
we note the following characteristics of Skelton's style: — (1) a 
grotesque vein of humor, manifested in whimsical extravagan- 
cies ; (2) frequent indelicacies; (3) inequality: in the midst of 
the most grotesque ribaldry, we frequently meet with lines of 
great strength and merit ; (4) a multiplied repetition of rhymes ; 
(5) arbitrary abbreviations of the metre ; (6) patches of Latin and 
French.— J. S. C. 



" To Maystress Margaret Hussey. 

MiRRY Margaret, 

As myclsomer flowre ; 

Jentill as fawcoun 

Or liawk of the towere : 

"With solace and gladness, 5 

Moche mirth and no madness, 

All good and no badness; 

So joyously. 

So maydenly. 

So womanly 10 

Her demenyng 

In everythynge, 

Far, far passynge 

That I can endyght, 

Or suffyce to wryghte, 15 

Of mirry Margarete, 

As mydsomer flowre, 

Jentyll as fawcoun 

Or hawke of the towre : 

As patient and as styll, 20 

And as full of good wyll 

As fair Isaphill ; 

Colyaunder, 

Sweet pomaunder, 

Goode Cassaunder ; 25 

Stedfast of thought 

Wele made, wele wrought ; 

Far may be sought, 



SELECTED POEMS. 

Erst that ye can fynde 
So corteise, so kyncle, 
As mirry Margaret, 
This mydsomer floure, 
Jentyll as fawcoun 
Or hawke of the towre. 



From "The Boke of Colyn Clout." 

I Colyn Clout 

As I go about 

And wandryng as I walke 

I heare the people talke ; 10 

Men say for syluer and golde 

Miters are bought and sold ; 

There shall no clergy appose 

A myter nor a crosse 

But a full purse. 15 

A straw for Goddess curse ! 

What are they the worse ? 

For a simoniake 

Is but a hermoniake, 

And no more ye make 20 

Of symony men say 

But a ehildes play. 

Over this, the forsayd raye 

Report how the pope maye 

A holy anker call 25 

Out of the stony wall 

And hym a bysshop make 

If he on him dare take 



18. Simoniake. A Simonist. One who sells church pi-eferments. 

19. Hermoniake. Possibly a harmoniac. One who makes general har- 
mony. — Skeat. 

25. Anker. An anchorite. A monk. 






To kepe so hard a rule, 

To ryde upon a mule 

Wyth golde all betrapped, 

In- purple and paule belapped. 

Some hatted and some capped, 5 

Eychely be wrapped, 

God wot to theyt great paynes, 

In rochettes of fine raynes ; 

White as morowes mylke, 

Their tabertes of fine silke, 10 

Their stirops of mixed gold begared, 

Their may no cost be spared. 

Their moyles golde doth eate, 

Theyr neighbors dye for meat. 

What care they though Gill sweat, 15 

Or Jacke of the Noke ? 

The pore people they yoke 

With sommons and citations 

And excommunications 

Aboute churches and market ; 20 

The bysshop on his carpet 

At home full soft doth syt ; 

Thys is a f careful fyt, 

To hear the people iangle ! 

How warely they wrangle, 25 

Alas why do ye not handle, 

And them all mangle ? 

Full falsely on you they lye 

And shamefully you ascry, 

And say as untruly, 30 

As the butterfly 



4. Paule. PaU. An archbishop's vestment 
8. Raynes. Linen made at Rennes in Brittany. 

11, Begared. Adorned. 

13. Moyles. Mules. 

16. Noke. The oak. The village. 

18. Sommons. Summons. 

29. Ascry, Decry. 



10 SELECTED POEMS. 

A man might say in mocke 

Ware the wethercocke 

Of the steple Ponies, 

And thus they hurt their soules 

In sclaunderyng you for truth, 5 

Alas it is great ruthe ! 

Some say ye sit in trones 

Like prynces aquilonis, 

And shryne your rotten bones 

With pearles and precious stones. 10 

But now the commons grones 

And the people mones 

For preestes and for lones 

Lent and neuer payde, 

But from day to day delaid, 15 

The commune welth decayd. 

Men say ye are tung tayde, 

And therof speake nothing 

But dissimuling and glosing. 

Wherfore men be supposmg 20 

That ye gene shrewd counsel 

Against the commune wel, 

By pollyng and pillage 

In cities and village, 

By taxyng and toUage, 25 

Ye have monks^to have the culerage 

For couering of an old cottage, 

That committed is a collage. 

In the charter of a dottage. 

Tenure par service de soUage, 30 

And not par service de socage, 

After old segnyours 

And the learning of Litleton tenours 

2. Ware. Were. 

8. Aquilonis. Like so many Lucifers. 
13. Preestes. Advances. 
17. Tayde. Tied. 
21. Shrewd. Evil. 
23. Pollyug. Plundering. 



11 



Ye have so ouerthwarted 
That good laws are subverted, 
And good reason perverted. 

Building royally 

Their [the clergy's] mancyons, curiously 5 

With turrettes and with toiires, 

With halles, and with boures, 

Streching to the starres ; 

With glass windowes and barres : 

Hangyng about the walles 10 

Clothes of gold and palles ; 

Arras of ryche arraye, 

Freshe as floures in Maye : 

With dame Dyana naked ; 

How lystye Venus quaked 15 

And how Cupide shaked 

His darte and bente his bowe, 

For to shote a crowe 

At her, tyrly tyrlowe : 

And how Paris of Troye 20 

Daunced a lege de moy, 

Made lustye sporte and toye 

With dame Helyn the queene: 

With such storyes by deen, 

Their chambres wel be scene. 25 

With triumphs of Cesar, etc. — 

Now all the world stares 

How they ryde in goodly chares 

Conveyed by olyphantes 

With lauriat garlantes ; 30 

And by unycornes 

With their semely homes ; 



24. Deen. By the dozen. 

27. Now. He is still describing the tapestry. 

29. 01yi>hantes. Elephants. 



12 SELECTED POEMS. 

Upon these beastes riding 

Naked boyes striding, 

With wanton wenches winkyng, — 

For prelates of estate 

Their courage to abate ; 5 

From worldly wantonnes, 

Their chambers thus lo dres 

With such parfytness, 

And all such holynes, 

Howbeit they lett down fall 10 

Their churches cathedrall. 



From "Why Come ye not to Court?" 

But this mad Amelek [Cardinal WolseyJ 

Like to a Mamalek, 

He regardeth lords 

No more than potshords ; 15 

He is in such elation 

Of his exaltation, 

And the supportation 

Of our sovereign lord, 

That, God to record, 20 

He ruleth at will. 

Without reason or skill ; 

Howbeit the primordial 

Of his wretched original. 

And his base progeny, 25 

And his greasy genealogy, 



8. Parfytness. Perfection. 

12. Amalek. Amalekite. 

13. Mamalek. Mameluke. 

15. Potshords. Potsherds. Pieces of broken pottery. 

20. God knows. 

26. Genealogy. Wolsey was the son of a butcher. 



13 



He came of the sank royal 

That was cast out of a butcher's stall. 
***** 

He would dry up the streams 

Of nine kings' reams, 

All rivers and wells, 5 

All water that swells ; 

For within us he so mells 

That within England dwells, 

I wold he were somewhere else ; 

For else by and by 10 

He will drink us so dry, 

And suck us so high, 

That men shall scantly 

Have penny or half -penny. 

God save his noble grace, 15 

And grant him a place 

Endless to dwell 

With the devil of hell ! 

For, an he were there, 

We need never fear 20 

Of the feindes' blake ; 

For I undertake 

He would so brag and crake. 

That he wold than make 

The devils to quake, 25 

To shudder and to shake. 

Like a fire-drake. 

And with a coal rake 

Bruise them on a brake. 

And bind them to a stake, 30 

And set hell on fire 

At his own desire. 



1. Sank. Sanguor Royal. Blood royal. 

7. Mells. Meddles. 
21. Feindes. The black fiends. 
27. Fire-drake. Fiery dragon. 
89. Brake. An engine of torture, 



14 SELECTED POEMS. 

He is such a grim sire, 

And such a potestolate, 

And such a potestate, 

That he wold brake the brains 

Of Lucifer in his chains, 5 

And rule them each one 

In Lucifer's trone. 

* * * * * 

He is set so hye 

In his ierarchye 

Of frantike frenesy, 10 

And folish fantasy. 

That in chambre of stars, 

Al maters ther he mars, 

Clapping his rod on the borde, 

No man dare speak a worde : 15 

He hath al the saying 

Without any renaying. 

He rolleth in his Kecordes : 

He saith, "how say ye my lordes ? 

Is not my reason good ? " 20 

" Good !— even good — Robin Hood !" 

Borne up on every syde 

With pomp and with pryde. 

With trump up alleluya 

For dame Philargyria 25 

Hath so his hart in hold, etc., etc. 

Adew Philosophia ! 
Adew Theologia ! 
Welcome dame Simonia, 



2. Potestolate. Equivalent to a lega,tee.—Dyer. 

7. Trone. Throne. 

9. Ierarchye. Hierarchy, 
12. Chambre. The star-chamber. 
17. Renaying. Gainsaying^. 

24. Allelnya. Pompous service. Hallehijah. 

25. Philargyria. Love of money. 
29. Simonia. Simony. 



15 



With dame Castimergia, 
To drynke and for to eate 
Swete ipocras and swete meate 
To keep his fleshe chaste, 
In Lente for his repaste 
He eateth capons stev/ed, 
Fesaunt and partriche mewed :- 
Spareth neyther mayd ne wife, 
This is a postel's life ! 



From *'The Bouge of Court." 

With that came Kyotte, rushing al at ones, 10 

A rustic galande, to ragged and to rente ; 

And on the borde he whirled a pair of bones, 
" Quater treye cleim^^'' he clattered as he went : 
" No we have at all by St. Thomas of Kente ; " 

And ever he threwe, and kyst I wote nere what : 15 

His here was growen thorowe out of his hat. 

Then I behylde how dysgysed he was ; 

His hedd was heavy for watchinge over night, 
His eyen blered, his face shone like a glas ; 

His gowne so short, that it ne cover myght 30 

His rompe, he went so all for somer light ; 



1. Castimergia. Gluttony. 
3. Ipocras. Spiced wine. 
7. Fesaunt. Pheasant. 
7. Partriclie. Partridge. 
9. Postel's. An Apostle's. 
10. Bouge. The Rewards. 

10. Ryotte. Riot. 

11. Galande. Gallant. 

11. Rente. All rags and tatters. 

12. Bones. Dice. 

13. Dews. "Four, three, two." 

14. Kente. Thomas a Becket. 

15. Kyst. Cast. 

15. Nere. Know not. 

21, Somer. As light as if it were summer. 



16 SELECTED POEMS. 

His hose was gardyd with a lyste of grene, 
Yet at the knee they broken were I ween. 

His cote was checkerd with patches rede and blewe, 
Of Kyrkbye Kendall was his short demye, 

And aye he sange fayth decon thou crewe ! 5 

His elbowe bare, he ware his gere so nye : 
His nose droppinge, his lippes were full drye : 

And by his syde his whynarde and his pouche, 

The devyll might dance therein for any crouche. 9 

Than in his [Dissimulation's] hode I saw there faces 
twayne; 

That one was lene and lyke a pyned ghost, 
That other loked as he wold me have slayne : 

And to me ward as he gan for to coost. 

Whan that he was even at m« almoost, 
I sawe a knyfe hid in his one sieve, 15 

Whereon was wryten this worde Mischeve. 

And in his other sieve meth ought I sawe 
A spone of golde, full of hony swete, 
To feed a fole, and for to prey a da we, etc., etc. 19 

******* 

He [Disdayne] looked hawtie, he sette eche man at nought ; 
His gawdy garment with scornes was al wrought, 
With indygnacion lyned was his hode ; 
He frowned as he wolde swear by cockes biode. 



1. Liyste. Embroidered with a stripe. 
4. Kendall. Cloth from Kendall Green. 
4. Demye. Doublet. Jacket. 
6. Nye. His coat-sleeve was so short. 

8. Whynarde. Sword. 

9. Crouclie. i.e., Without hitting a cross. A piece of money. 
11. Pyned. Haggard. 

13. Coost. Began to approach. 

18. Spone. Spoon. 

19. Fole. Fool. 

19. Dawe. To catch a silly bird. 

23. Blode. By the cock's blood 1 An oath. 



SKELTON. 17 

He bote the lyppe, he loked passynge coye ; 

His face was belyramed as bees had him stounge : 
It was no tyme with hym to jape nor toye. 

Envye hath wasted his lyver and his lounge ; 

Hatred by the hert so had hym wrounge, 5 

That he loked pale as ashes to my syghte ; 
Disdayne, I wene, this comberous crab is hygthe. 

Forthwith he made on me a proude assawte, 

With scornfull loke movyd all in mode ; 
He wente about to take me in a fawte, 10 

He f round, he stared, he stamped where he stood e : 
I loke on hym I wende he had be woode : 

He set the arme proudly under the syde, 

And in this wyse he gan with me to chyde. 



From "The Crowne of Lawrell." 

In an herber I sawe brought where I was ; 15 

The byrdes on the brere sange on every syde, 

With aleys ensandyd about in compas, 
The bankes enturfed with singular solas, 

Enrailed with rosers, and vines engraped ; 

It was a new comfort of sorrowes escaped. 20 



1. Bote. Bit. 

2. Belymmed. Swollen. 
2. Stounge. Stung. 

4. Liounge. Lungs. 

5. Wrounge. Wrung. 

8. Assawte. Assault. 

9. Mode. Anger. 

10. Fawte. Off my guard. 

12. Wende. Weened. 

12. Woode. Mad. Insane. 

14. Chyde. Scold. 

15. Herber. Arbor. 

16. Brere. Briar. 

17. Aleys. Alleys. 

17. Ensandyd. Surrounded with sandwalks. 
19. Rosers. Rose-trees. 



18 SELECTED POEMS. 

In the middes a cundite that^ curiously was cast 
With pypes of golde, engushing out streames 

Of cristail, the clerenes these waters far past, 
Enswimminge with roches, barbilles, and breames, 

Whose skales ensilvered again the son beames, 5 

* * * * * * * 

Where I saw growyng a goodly laurell tre, 
Enverdured with leave, continually grene ; 

Above in the top a byrde of Araby, 
Men call a phenix : his winges bytwene 

She bet up a fyre with the sparkes full kene, 10 

With braunches and bowes of the swete olyve, 
Whose fragraunt flower was chefe preservative 

Ageynst all infections with rancour enflamed : 

It passed all baumes that ever were named, 

Of gurames of Saby, so derely that be solde : 15 

There blewe in that garden a soft piplynge colde, 

Enbrething of Zephirus, with his pleasaunt wynde; 

Al frutes and flowers grew there in their kynde. 

Dryades there daunsed upon that goodly soile, 
With the nyne Muses, Pierides by name ; 20 

Phillis and Testelis, there tresses with oyle 
Were newly enbibed : and, round about the same 
Grene tre of laurell, moche solacious game 

They made with chaplettes and garlandes grene ; 

And formost of al dame Flora the queue ; 25 

Of somer so formally she foted the daunces; 

There Cinthius sat, twinklyng upon his harpestringes. 
And Jopas his instrument dyd avaunce. 

The poemes and stdries auncyent in brynges, etc., etc. 



1. Cundite. Conduit. 23. Solacious. Entertaining, 

4. Breames. Glittering fishes. 26. Foted. Footed. 



19 



From *' The Boke of Philipp Sparowe." 

It was so pretty a fool : 
And would sit on a stool, 
And learned after my school 
For to keep bis cut, 

With " Philipp keep your cut ! " 5 

It had a velvet cap, 
And would sit on my lap, 
And seek after small w^orms, 
And sometimes white bread crumbs : 
And many times and oft 10 

Between my breasts soft 
It would lie and rest ; 
It was proper and prsst. 
Sometimes he would gasp 

When he saw a wasp ; 15 

A fly or a gnat 
He would fly at that ; 
And prettily he would pant 
When he saw an ant ; 

Lord, how he would pry 20 

After the butterfly ! 
Lord, how he would hop 
After the grassop ! 
And when I said, " Phip, Phip ! " 
Then he would leap and skip, 35 

And take me by the lip. 
Alas, it will me slo 
That Philip is gone me fro ! 
* * * * * 

Alas, mine heart it slayeth, 

My Philip's doleful death ! 30 

When I remember it, 

How prettily it would sit, 

Upon my finger aloft ! 



20 SELECTED POEMS. 

I played him with tittle tattle, 
And fed him with my spattle, 
With his bill between my lips ; 
It was my pretty Phips ; 
Many a pretty kuss 
Had I of his sweet muss ; 
And now the cause is thus, 
That he is slain me fro 
To my great pain and woe. 



21 



WYATT. 

Sir Thomas Wyatt was born at Allington Castle, tlie home of 
his father, Henry Wyatt, Esq., in the year 1503. He began his 
education at Cambridge, but soon after went to Oxford, where he 
was graduated. He is generally mentioned in connection with the 
Earl of Surrey, his contemporary and intimate friend. Many 
critics have supposed that Wyatt was merely the humble friend 
and imitator of Surrey, but recent investigations do not sustain 
this theory. In 1537, when Surrey was only twenty-one years old, 
Wyatt was sent to the Court of Charles V, in Spain, and from that 
date till his death Wyatt seems to have been so engrossed with 
affairs of state and with the court life of Henry VIII. that he had 
little if any leisure for writing. Moreover, in one of Surrey's 
sonnets he addresses Wyatt as one of the deified heroes who intro- 
duced arts " in the rude age when knowledge was not rife." It 
would seem, therefore, that, as Mintosays, " Wyatt was the poeti- 
cal father, and not the pupil, of Surrey." Wyatt seems to have 
become a favorite at the court of Henry VIII. at an early age. 
His wit, learning, athletic skill, accomplished manners, and hand- 
some person made him a conspicuous figure. He seems to have 
been familiar with the then existing literature of France, Spain, 
and Italy ; with Surrey, he was the inaugurator of what is known 
as the period of Italian influence in English literature — the period 
that preceded and prepared the way for the brilliant Elizabethan 
period. Wyatt's genius was essentially imitative. He was influ- 
encecl by Virgil, Martial, and Seneca, but especially by Petrarch. 
With the aid of Surrey, Wyatt introduced and naturalized the 
sonnet (till then a purely Italian form), and became one of the 
founders of our modern lyrical poetry. Says Collins : ' ' They 
gave the death-blow to that rudeness, that grotesqueness, that 
prolixity, that diffuseness, that pedantry, which had deformed 
with fatal persistence the poetry of medisevalism ; and while they 
purified our language from the Gallicisms of Chaucer and his fol- 
lowers, they fixed the standard of our versification." In the same 
strain Puttenham, the earliest of English critics, and almost a con- 



22 SELECTED POEMS. 

temporary of Wyatt, says in liis "Art of English Poesy," "In the 
latter end of the same kinge's raigne spronge nj) a new company of 
wit-makers, of whom Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder, and Henry 
Earle of Surrey were the two chieftains ; who, having traveled 
into Italic, and there tasted the sweet and stately measures and 
style of the Italian poesie, as novices newly crept out of the schools 
of Dante, Ariosto, and Petrarch; they greatly polished our rude 
and homely manner of vulgar poesie from that it had been before, 
and for that cause may justly be sayd the first reformexs of our 
English meetre and style." 

Wyatt's temper seems to have been less fiery than that of his 
gifted friend, for Wyatt succeeded in retaining the favor of the 
capricious Henry VIII. to the end, save during a brief imprison- 
ment caused by the poet's too great fondness for the society of the 
Queen, Anne Boleyn. He died at the early age of thirty-eight, in 
1541, while actively engaged in the public service. While, like 
Surrey, he confines himself mainly to the stock theme of love and 
its disappointments, there is a marked difference in the mental 
attitudes of the two poets. Wyatt's salient characteristics may be 
summed up as follows : — (1 ) melancholy, sometimes deepening into 
bitterness ; (2) grave dignity ; he is " too often reflecting when he 
ought to be feeling ; " (3) temperate gaiety ; (4) a vein of love 
poetry then new to English verse ; (5) faulty rhymes, generally 
due to accenting such final syllables as er, eth, etc. — J. S. C. 



The spelling has been modernized, for the convenience of the 
reader, in a part of the selections from both Surrey and Wyatt. 
Enough has been left in its original form under each author, how- 
ever, to give ample illustration of the changes that our spelling 
has undergone since the first part' of the nineteenth century. 



23 



The Lover Beseecheth his Mistress not to Forget his 
Stedfast Faith and True Intent. 

FOKGET not yet the tried intent 
Of such a truth as I have meant ; 
My great travail so gladly spent, 
Eorget not yet ! 

Forget not yet when first began ' 5 

The weary life ye know, since whan 
The suit, the service, none tell can ; 
Forget not yet ! 

Forget not yet the great assays. 
The cruel wrong, the scornful ways, 10 

The painful patience in delays. 
Forget not yet ! 

t ' 

Forget not !— oh ! forget not this, 
How long ago hath been, and is. 
The mind that never meant amiss. 15 

Forget not yet ! 

Forget not then thine own approved 
The which so long hath thee so loved. 
Whose steadfast faith yet never moved : 

Forget not this I 30 



24 SELECTED POEMS. 



The Lover Complaineth of the Unkindness of his Love. 

My lute, awake ! perform the last 

Labour that thou and I shall waste ; 

And end that I have now begun : 

And when this song is sung and past, 

My lute ! be still, for I have done. 5 

As to be heard where ear is none, 

As lead to grave in marble stone. 

My song may pierce her heart as soon ; 

Should we then sing, or sigh, or moan ? 

No, no, my lute ! for I have done. 10 

The rock doth now so cruelly 

Repulse the waves continually. 

As she my suit and affection : 

So that I am past remedy ; 

Whereby my lute and I have done. 15 

Proud of the spoil that thou hast got, 

Of simple hearts thorough Love's shot. 

By whom, unkind, thou hast them won ; 

Think not he hath his bow forgot, 

Although my lute and I have done. 20 

Vengeance shall fall on thy disdain 

That makest but game of earnest pain ; 

Trow not alone under the sun 

Unquit to cause thy lovers plain, 

Although my lute and I have done. 35 

24. Unquit. Unrequited. 



25 



May chance thee lie withered and old 

In winter nights that are so cold, 

'Plaining in vain unto the moon ; 

Thy wishes then dare not be told : 

Care then who list, for I have done. 5 

And then may chance thee to repent 

The time that thou hast lost an^ spent, 

To cause thy lover's sigh and swoon : 

Then shalt thou know beauty but lent, 

And wish and want, as I have done. 10 

Now cease, my lute. This is the last 

Labour that thou and I shall waste. 

And ended is that we begun ; 

Now is thy song both sung and past : 

My lute, be still, for I have done. 15 



Of the Means and Sure Estate. 

(Written to John Poynes.) 

My mother's maides when they do sow and spinne, 

They sing a song made of a fieldish mouse, 
That for because her livelod was but thinne. 

Would needs go see her townish sister's house. 
She tought herself endurde to grievous payne, 20 

The stormy blastes her cave so sore did souse ; 
That when the furrous swimmed with the rayne, 

She must lye cold and wet in sory plight. 
And worse then that bare meate ther did remayne, 

To comfort her, when she her house had dight. 
Some tyme a barley corne, some time a beane, 25 

For which she laboured hard both day and night. 
In harvest tyme, whyle she might go and gleane, 

18. liivelod. Livehood. 22. Furrous. Furrows. 



26 SELECTED POEMS. 

And when her store was stroy^d with the floode, 
Then welaway for she undone was clene, 

Then was she faine to take instede of foode, 
Slepe if she might, her hunger to begyle. 

My sister, quoed she, hath a living good, 5 

And hence from me she dwelleth not a mile ; 

In colde and stovme she lyetli warm and drye 
In bed of downe; the durt doth not defyle 

Her tender foot, she labours not as I. 
. Eichely she fedes and at the riche mannes cost, 10 

And for her meate she nedes not crave nor cry. 
By sea, by land, of delicates the most 

Her cater sekes, and spareth for no perell 
She fedes on boyld meate, bake meate, and on rost. 

And hath therefore no whit of charge nor travell. 15 

And when she list, the licour of the grape 

Doth glad her heart, till that her belly swell ; 
And at this journey makes she but a jape. 

So forth she goes, trusting of all this wealth, 
With her sister her part so for to shape, 20 

That if she might there kepe herself in health, 
To live a lady while her life doth last. 

And to the dore now is she come by stealth, 
And with her foote anone she scrapes full fast. 

Th' other for feare durst not well scarce appeare, 25 

Of every noise so was the wretch agast. 

At last, she asked softly who was there, 
And in her language as well as she could, 

Pepe (quod the other), sister I am here. 29 

Peace (quod the towne mouse), why speakest thou so loude ? 

And by the hand she took her fayre and well, 
Welcome, quod she, my sister by the roode. 

She feasted her, that joy it was to tell 
The fayre they had, they drank the wyne so clere. 

5. Quoed. Quoth. 18. Jape. Joke, 

13. Cater. Appetite. 24, Anone. Immediately, 

13. Perell. Peril. 



WYATT. 27 

And as to purpose now and then it fell, 
She chered her with, how sister, what chere? 

Amid this joy befell a sory chance. 
That welaway, the stranger bought full dere 

The fare she had, for as she lookte askaunce, 5 

Under a stole she spied two steming eyes 

In a rounde heade with sharp eares : In France 
Was never mouse so ferde, for the unwise 

Had not ysene such a beast before. 
Yet had nature taught her after guyse 10 

To know her foe, and dread him evermore ; 
The towne mouse fled, she knew whither to go, 

The other had no shift, but wonders sore. 
Ferde of her life, at home she wisht her tho'. 

And to do, alas ! as she did skippe, 15 

The heaven it would, lo I and eke her chaunce was so. 

At the thresh olde her sely foote did trippe, 
And ere she might recover it again. 

The traytour cat had caught her by the hippe. 
And made her there against her will remayne, 30 

That had forgot her poore suertie, and rest, 
Forseking welth, wherein she thought to raygne. 

Alas ! (my Poynes) how men do seke the best, 
And find the worse, by error as they staye ; 

And no marvell, when sight is so opprest, 25 

And blindes the guyde, anone out of the way 

Goeth guyde, and all in seeking quiet life. 
O wretched myndes ! there is no golde that may 

Graunt that you seek, no warre, no peace, no strife. 
No, no, although thy head were hoopte with gold, 30 

Serjeant with mace, with hawbert, sword, nor knife. 
Can not repulse the care that follow should. 

Eche kynde of lyfe hath with him his disease. 



2. Chered. Conversed. 21. Suertie. Security. 

6. Steming. Glittering. 22. Forseking. Forsaking. 

8. Ferde. Frightened. ' 26. Anone. Quickly. 

17. Sely. Silly. 



28 SELECTED POEMS. 

Live in delites, even as thy lust woulde, 

And thou shalt finde when lust doth most thee please, 
It yrketh straight, and by itself doth fade. 

A small thing is that, that may thy minde appease ; 
None of you all there is that is so madde 5 

To seke for grapes on brambles, or on briers. 
For none, I trowe, that hath a witte so badde 

To set his hay for conies over rivers, 
Nor ye set not a dragge net for a hare ; 

And yet the thing that most is your desire, 10 

You do mislike with more travell and care. 

Make plaine thine heart that it be not knotted 
With hope or dreade, and see thy will be bare 

From all affectes, whom vyce hath never spotted ; 
Thyself content with that is thee assynde, 15 

And use it well that is to thee allotted ; 
Then seke no more out of thy self to fynde 

The thing that thou hast sought so long before ; 
For thou shalt feele it sticking in thy mynde. 

Made, if ye list to continue your fore, 20 

Let present passe, and gape on time to come. 

And depe thyself in travell more and more. 
Henceforth (my Poynes) this shall be all and some. 

Those wretched fooles shall have nought els of me i 
But, to the great God, and to his dome, 25 

None other payne pray I for them to be. 
But when the rage doth leade them from the right 

That, looking backward, vertue they may see. 
Even as she is so goodly, fay re and bright ; 

And whylst they claspe theyr lusts in armes acrosse, 30 
Graunt them, good Lord, as thou maist of thy might, 

To freat inward, for losing such a loss. 



14. Aifectes. Affections. 30. Lusts. Pleasures. 

20. Fore. Going, travelling. 



WYATT. 29 



Of the Courtier's Life. 

Myne own, John Poynes, sins ye deliglit to know 

The causes why that homeward I me draw, 
And flee the prease of courtes, wherefo they goe. 

Rather then to live thrall under the awe 
Of lordly lookes, wrapped within my cloke, 5 

To will and lust learning to set a law, * 

It is not, that because I storme or mocke 

The power of them whom fortune here hath lent 
Charge over us, of right to strike the stroke ; 

But true it is, that I have always ment 10 

Less to esteeme them, then the common sort. 

Of outward thinges that judge. in their entent ; 
Without regarde, what inward doth resort ; 

I graunt, some time of glory that the syre. 
Doth touch my heart, me list not to report. . 15 

Blame by honour and honour to desyre. 
But how may I this honour now attaine, 

That cannot dye the colour blacke a Iyer ? 
My Poynes, I cannot frame my tune to fayn. 

To cloke the truth, for praise without desert, 20 

Of them that list all vice for to retayne, 

I cannot honour them that set theyr part 
With Venus and Bacchus all their life long. 

Nor hold my peace of them, although I smart; 
I cannot crouche nor knele to such a wrong ; 25 

To worship them like God on earth alone, 
That are as wolves these sely lambes among. 

I cannot with my woordes complayne and mone, 
And suffer nought nor smart without complaint, 

Nor turne the word that from my mouth is gone. 30 
I cannot speak and looke like a saint. 

Use wyles for wit, and make desceit a pleasure, 

1. Sins. Since. 4. Thrall. Is a servant. 

3. Presse. Press, crowd. 3-2. Wyles. Wiles, deceit. 



30 SELECTED POEMS. 

Call craft counsaile, for lucre still to paynt. 

I cannot wrest the law to fyll the coffer 
With innocent blood to feed my self fatte, 

And do most hurt w^here that most lielpe I offer. 
I am not he that can allow the state 5 

Of hye Caesar and damne Cato to dye, 
That with his death could scape out of the gate, 

From Caesar's hands, if Livy doth not lye, 
And would not live where liberty w^as lost. 

So did his heart the common wealth apply. 10 

I am not he, such eloquence to bost, 

To make the crow in singing, as the swanne ; 
Nor call the lyon of coward beastes the most. 

That cannot take a mouse, as the cat can ; 
And he that dyeth for honger of the golde, 15 

Call him Alexander, and say that Pan 
Passeth Apollo in musike many folde, 

Praise Syr Copas for a noble tale, 
And scorne the story that the knight tolde. 

Praise him for counsell that is dronke.of ale, 20 

Grinne when he laughes, that beareth all the sway, 

Frowne when he frownes, and grone w^hen he is pale ; 
On others lust, to hang both night and day, 

None of these pointes would ever frame in me. 
My wit is nought, I cannot learn the way, 25 

And much the less of things that greater be, 
That asken helpe of colours to devise. 

To joyne the meane with eche extremitie. 
With nerest vertue ay to cloke the vyce. 

And as to purpose likewise it shall fall, 30 

To presse the vertue that it may not ryse. 

As dronkenness good felowship to call. 
The friendly foe with his faire double face. 

Say he is gentle, and curties there withall, 
Affirme that Favill hath a goodly grace. 35 

6. Damne. Condemn, 34. Curties. Courteous. 



31 



In eloquence and cruelty to name 
Zeale of justice, and change in time and place 

And he that suffereth offence without blame, 
Call him pitiefull, and him true and playne 

That rayleth rechless unto eche man's shame ; 5 

Say he is rude that cannot lye and fayne. 

The lecher a lover and tyranny 
To be right of a prince's raigne. 

I cannot, I, no, no, it will not be. 
Tliis is the cause that I could never yet 10 

Hang on their sieves the weigh (as thow maist see) 
A chippe of chaunce, more then a pound of wit ; 

This makes me at home to hunt and hawke, 
And in foul weather at my book to sit ; 

In frost and snow, then with my bo we stalke ; 15 

No man doth marke wherefo I ryde or goe ; 

In lusty leas at libertie I walke. 
And of these newes I fele no weale or woe. 

Save that a clogge doth hang yett at my hele ; 
No force for that, for that is ordred so, 20 

That I may leape both hedge and dyke full wele. 
I am not now in France to judge the wyne, 

With savery sauce those delicates to feel, 
Nor yet in Spayne, where one must him incline, 

Kather then to be, outwardly to seme ; 25 

I meddle not with wittes that be so fyne, 

Nor Flanders chere lettes not my sight to deme, 
Of black and white nor taket my wittes away, 

With beastliness, such doe those beastes esteme, 
Nor I am not, where truth is geven in pray 30 

For money, pryson, and treason, of some 
A common practice used night and daye ; 

But I am here in Kent and Christendome, 
Among the muses, where I-reade and ryme, 

Where if thou list, mine own John Poynes to come, 35 
Thou shalt be judge how I do spende my tyme. 



32 SELECTED POEMS. 



SURREY. 

Henry Howard, afterward Earl of Surrey, was tlie eldest son 
of Thomas, Earl of Surrey ; his mother was a daughter of Stafford, 
the famous Duke of Buckingham. Howard was born about the 
year 1517, at a place now unknown. He became Earl of Surrey 
in 1524, when his father became Duke of Norfolk. The chival- 
rous traits in Surrey's character have given rise to an astonishing 
amount of fiction in regard to his career. In many of his sonnets 
he addresses a lady under the name Geraldine, and even so accurate 
a historian as Warton accepts without question the fiction (appa- 
rently invented by Thomas Nash) that Surrey made the tour of 
Europe as a knight-errant, upholding against all comers the 
superiority of his mistress Geraldine, and gives fabulous details 
of the tour. Equally fictitious are many of the formerly accepted 
tales of Surrey's intimacy with the Duke of Richmond, a natural 
son of Henry VIII., although the two brilliant young courtiers 
seem to have been intimate after Surrey had left Cambridge and 
during his later years. The brilliant court of Henry VIII. had 
no brighter ornament than the haughty young Howard, scion of 
the most powerful family in England. Imperious, proud, daring, 
' ' indiscreet in word and action, profuse in his expenses, sump- 
tuous in apparel and mode of living, courteous and affable to 
inferiors, haughty to equals, and willing to acknowledge no su- 
perior," it is no wonder that Surrey's popularity aroused the 
suspicious jealousy of such a sovereign as Henry VIII. , and that 
he fell an easy victim to the intrigues with which that court 
abounded. After covering himself with glory as chief challenger 
in the royal jousts, as sword-bearer at coronation, as commander- 
in-chief of his father's army at Flodden-field, as field-marshal at 
the siege of Boulogne ; after repeated imprisonments in the tower 
for crimes as venial as the eating of meat in Lent, and as great as 
the wanton and intentional destruction of the property of London 
citizens (under pretense of " alarming their guilty minds with fear 
of approaching divine vengeance ") ; after becoming acknowledged 
as the unrivaled literary ornament of the court and the age, 



SURREY. ' 33 

Surrey was arrested in December, 1546, at the instigation of cer- 
tain enemies, was tried for liigli treason, condemned, and executed. 
The charge was that he had '• falsely, maliciously, and traitor- 
ously set up and bore the arms of Edward the Confessor." By 
the authority of the heralds, Surrey had a right to this escutcheon, 
as it had long been used by the family of Norfolk; but the charge 
was merely a subterfuge by which Henry VIII. might rid himself 
of a courtier who was suspected of a design to marry the Princess 
Mary, and to claim the regency for the Howards instead of the 
Seymours. 

Surrey's style, like his character, is much more impetuous and 
emotional than that of Wyatt. Taine calls him the English Pe- 
trarch, and adds : ''It was pure love to which Surrey gave expres- 
sion ; for his lady, the beautiful Geraldine, like Beatrice and 
Laura, was an ideal personage, and a child of thirteen years." 
All Surrey's writings show the influence of the models that he 
found during his sojourns in Italy. While he shares with Wyatt 
the honor of having first naturalized the sonnet on English soil, 
to Surrey belongs the honor of being the first to show a mastery 
of the pentameter, which, a little later, was to be made by Shake- 
speare and Milton the great national heroic meter. The specific 
qualities of Surrey's style may be summarized as follows : (1) a 
warm appreciation of the beauties of nature ; (2) natural, un- 
affected sentiment ; (3) smooth and delicately musical versifica- 
tion ; (4) lofty chivalrous tone ; (5) richness of circumstance and 
epithet.— J. S. C. 



A Vowe to Love Faithfully howsoever he be Rewarded. 

Set me whereas the sonne doth parch the grene, 

Or where his beams do not dyssolve the yse, 

In temperate heat, where he is felt and sene, 

In presence prest of people, madde or wise ; 

Set me in hye, or yet in lowe degree, •. 

In longest night, or in the shortest day ; 

1, Whereas, Wherever. 



34 SELECTED POEMS. . 

In clearest skye, or where cloucles thickest be, 
In lusty youth, or when my hears are grave : 
Set me in heaven, in earth, or else in hell, 
In hyll or dale, or in the foaming flood ; 
Thrall, or at large, alyve where so I dwell, 
Sicke, or in helthe, in evyll fame or good : 
Hers will I be, and only with this thought 
Content myself, although my chance be nought. 



Complaint of the Absence of her Lover beyng upon the Sea. 

Good ladies, ye that have your pleasures in exile, 
Step in your foote, come take a place, and morne with me a 
while : 10 

And such as by theyr lordes do set but little pryce. 
Let them sit still, it killes them not what chaunce come on the 

dice ; 
But ye whom love hath bound by order of desire. 
To love your lords, whose good deserts none other would re- 
quire. 
Come ye yet once agayne, and set your foote by myne, 15 

Whose wofuU plight and sorrwes great no tong can well 

define. 
My love and lord, alas ! in whom consistes my welth. 
Hath fortune sent to passe the seas in hazard of his helth ; 
"Whom I was wont tembrace with well contented mynde, 
Is now amyd the fomyng floods at pleasure of the wynde : 20 
Where God will him preserve, and soone him home me send. 
Without which hope my lyf e (alas !) were shortly at an ende : 
Whose absence yet although my hope doth tell me playne 
With short returns he comes anone, yet ceaseth not my 
payne : 

2. Hears, etc. Hairs are gray. 5. Thrall, Enslaved. 



SURREY. 35 

The fearefull dreams I have, oft tymes doe grieve me so, 
That when I wake I lye in doubte where they be true or no : 
Sometimes the roaring seas me semes do grow so hye, 
That my deare lord, ay me, alas ! methinks I see him dye. 
An other time the same doth tell me he is come, 5 

And playing, where I shall hym flnde with his faire little 

Sonne. 
So fourth I goe apace to see that lesesome sight. 
And, with a kysse, methinke I say welcome my lord my knight. 
Welcome my swete, alas ! the stay of my welfare. 
Thy presence bringeth forth a truce atwixt me and my care; 10 
Then liuely doth he look, and salveth me agayne. 
And sayth my dere, how is it now that you have all this 

payne ? 
Wherewith the heavy cares that heapt are in my brest, 
Breake fourth an me dischargen clene of all my huge unrest. 
But when I me awake and find it but -a dreame, 15 

The anguish of my former wo beginneth more extreme 
And me tormenteth so that uneath may I fynde 
Some hidden peace wherein to slake the gnawing of my mynde. 
Thus every way you see wythe absence how I burne, 
And for my wound no cure I fynde but hoape of good re- 

turne ; . 20 

Save when I thynke by sowre how swete is felt the more 
It doth abate some of my paynes that I abode before : 
And then unto myself I say, when we shall mete, 
But little whyle shall seme thys payne, the joy shall be so 

swete. 35 

Ye wyndes I you conjure in chief est of your rage. 
That ye my lord safely send my sorrowes to asswage ; 
And that I may not long abyde in thys excesse. 
Do your good will to cure a wyght that liveth in distresse. 



2. Wlien. Whether. 14. An. And. 

4. Ay. Ah. 17. Uneath. Not easily. 

7. Iiesesonie. Pleasant. 99. Wyght. Wight. 
II, Salveth. Salute b. 



36 SELECTJED POEMS. 

Description of Spring. 

(Wherein each thing renews, save only the lover.) 

The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings, 

With green hath clad the hill, and eke the vale. 
The nightingale with feathers new she sings ; 

The turtle to her mate hath told her tale. 
Summer is come, for every spray now springs ; 5 

The hart hath hung his old head on the pale ; 
The buck in brake his winter coat, he slings ; 

The fishes fleet with new repaired scale ; 
The adder all her slough away she slings ; 

The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale ; 10 

The busy-bee her honey now she mings ; 

Winter is worn that was the flowers' bale. 

And thus I see among these pleasant things 
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs. 



A Complaint by Night of the Lover not Beloved. 

Alas ! so all things now do hold their peace ! 15 

Heaven and earth disturbed in no thing : 
The beasts, the air, the birds their song do cease ; 

The nightes car the stars about doth bring. 
Calm is the sea ; the waves work less and less ; 

So am not I, whom love, alas ! doth wring, 20 

Bringing before my face the great increase 

Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing. 
In joy and woe, as in a doubtful ease. 

For my sweet thoughts sometime do pleasure bring ; 
But by and by, the cause of my disease 25 

Gives me a pang, that inwardly doth sting. 
When that I think what grief it is again. 
To live and lack the thing should rid my pain. 

1. Soote. Sweet. 9. Slough. Sloughed skin. 

J>. Eke. AlsQ. 1?. Bale, Ev.il. 



37 



Prisoned in Windsor, he Recounteth his Pleasure there 
Passed. 

So cruel prison how could betide, alas ! 

As proud Windsor ? Where I in lust and joy, 
With a king's son, my childish years did pass. 

In greater feast than Priam's sons of Troy, 
Where each sweet place returns a taste full sour, 5 

The large green courts, where we were wont to trove. 
With eyes cast up into the maiden's tower. 

And easy sighs, such as folks draw in love. 
The stately seats, the ladies bright of hue, 

The dances short, long tales of great delight ; 10 

With words and looks, that tigers could but rue ;■ 

When each of us did plead the other's right. 
The palme-play, where, despoiled for the game, 

With dazed eyes oft we by gleams of love 
Have missed the ball, and got sight of our dame, 15 

To bait her eyes, which kept the leads above. 
The gravelled grounde, with sleeves tied on the helm, 

On foaming horse, with swords and friendly hearts ; 
With cheer, as though one should another whelm. 

When we have fought, and chased oft with darts ; 20 
With silver drops, the mead yet spread for ruth. 

In active games of nimbleness and strength. 
Where we did strain, trained with swarms of youth. 

Our tender limbs, that yet shot up in length. 
The secret groves, which oft we made resound 25 

Of pleasant plaint, and of our ladies' praise ; 
Recording oft what grace each one had found. 

What hope of speed, what dread of long delays. 
The wild forest, the clothed halts with green ; 



2. Liust. Pleasure. 19. Wlieltn. Overwhelm. 

6. Trove. To rove. 29, Clothed halts. W^hat is clothea, 



38. SELECTED POEMS. 

With reins availed, and swiftly breathed horse, 
With cry of hounds, and merry blasts between, 

When we did chase the fearful hart, of force. 
The wild vales eke, that harboured us each night ; 

Wherewith, alas ! reviveth in my breast 5 

The sweet accord, such sleeps as yet delight ; 

The pleasant dreams, the quiet bed of rest ; — 
The secret thoughts, imparted with such trust ; 

The wanton talk, the divers change of play ; 
The friendship sworn, each promise kept so fast, 10 

Wherewith we passed the winter night away. 
And with this thought the blood forsakes the face ; 

The tears berain my cheeks of deadly hue : 
The which, as soon as sobbing sighs, alas ! 

Upsupped have, thus I my plaint renew : 15 

O place of bliss, renewer of my woes ! 

Give me account, where is my noble fere. 
Whom in thy walls thou dost each night enclose. 

To other love, but unto me most dear. 
Echo, alas ! that doth my sorrow rue 20 

Keturns thereto a hollow sound of plaint. 
Thus I alone, where all my freedom grew. 

In prison pine, with bondage and restraint ; 
And with remembrance of the greater grief. 
To banish the less, I find my chief relief. 25 



The Means to Obtain Happy Life. 

(Translated from Martial.) 
Martial, the things that do attain 

The happy life be these, I find ; 
The riches left, not got with pain, 

The fruitful ground, the quiet mind. 



1. Availed. Set down. 15. Upsupped. Dried up. 

13. Berain. Bedew. 17. Fere. Companion. 



SURREY. 39 

The equal friend, no grudge, no strife, 

No charge of rule nor governance ; 
Without disease, the healthful life ; 

The household of continuance. 

The mean diet, no delicate fare ; 5 

True wisdom joined with simpleness ; 

The night discharged of all care, 

Where wine the wit may not oppress. 

The faithful wife, without debate ; 

Such sleeps as may beguile the night ; 10 

Contented with thine own estate, 

JSTe wish for death, ne fear his might. 



A Praise of his Love. 

(Wherewith he reproveth them that compare their ladies with his.) 

Give place, ye lovers, here before 

That spent your boasts and brags in vain ; 
My lady's beauty passeth more 15 

The best of yours, I dare well sayne, 
Than doth the sun the candlelight 
Or brightest day the darkest night. 

And thereto had a troth as just 

As had Penelope the fair ; 20 

For what she saith, ye may it trust, 
As it by writing sealed were : 
And virtues hath she many moe 
Than I with pen have skill to show. 

I could rehearse, if that I would, 25 

The whole effect of Nature's plaint. 
When she had lost the perfect mould, 

2S. Moe. More. 



40 SELECTED POEMS. 

The like to whom she could not paint : 
With wringing hands how she did cry, 
And what she said, I know it, I. 

I know she swore with raging mind ; 

Her kingdom only set apart, 5 

There was no loss by law of kind 

That could have gone so near her heart ; 
And this was chiefly all her pain : 
' She could not make the like again. ' 

Sith Nature thus gave her the praise 10 

To be the chiefest work she wrought ; 
In faith, methinks, some better ways 
On your behalf might well be sought, 
Than to compare, as ye have done, 
To match the candle with the sun. 15 



An Epitaph on Clere, Surrey's faithful Friend and Follower. 

Norfolk sprung thee, Lambeth holds thee dead ; 

Clere, of the Count of Cleremont, thou hight ; 
Within the womb of Ormond's race thou bred. 

And saw'st thy cousin crowned in thy sight. 
Shelton for love, Surrey for Lord thou chase ; 20 

(Ah me ! whilst life did last that league was tender) 
Tracing whose steps thou sawest Kelsal blaze, 

Landrecy burnt, and battered Boulogne's render. 
At Montreuil gates, hopeless of all recure. 

Thine Earl, half dead, gave in thy hand his will ; 25 
Which cause did thee this pining death procure. 

Ere summers four times seven thou couldst fulfill. 
Ah ! Clere ! if love had booted, care, or cost. 
Heaven had not won, nor earth so timely lost. 

17. Hi gilt. Art called. 28. Render. Surrender. 

20. Chase. Chose. aS. Booted. Counted. 



41 



On the Death of Sir Thomas Wyatt. 

Wyatt resteth here that, quick, could never rest ; 

Whose heavenly gifts increased by disdain, 
And virtue sank the deeper in his breast ; 

Such profit he by envy could obtain. 

A head where wisdom mysteries did frame, 5 

Whose hammers beat still in that lively brain, 

As on a stithe where that some work of fame 
Was daily wrought, to turn to Britain's gain. 

A visage stern and mild : where both did grow 
Vice to contemn, in virtue to rejoice ; 10 

Amid great storms whom grace assured so 
To live upright, and smile at fortune's choice. 

A hand that taught what might be said in rhyme ; 

That reft Chaucer the glory of his wit ; 
A mark, the which (unperfected for time) 15 

Some may approach, but never none shall hit. 

A tongue that served in foreign realms his king ; 

Whose courteous talk to virtue did inflame 
Each noble heart : a worthy guide to bring 

Our English youth by travail unto fame. 20 

An eye whose judgment none affect could blind, 

Friends to allure and foes to reconcile, 
Whose piercing look did represent a mind 

With virtue fraught reposed void of guile. 



1. Quick. Alive. 14. Reft. Bereft. 

7. Stithe. Anvil. 21. Affect. Interest. 



42 SELECTED POEMS. 

■ A heart where dread was never so imprest 

To hide the thought that might the truth advance ; 
In neither fortune lost, nor yet represt, 
To swell in wealth, or yield unto mischance. 

A valiant corpse, whose force and beauty met, 5 

Happy, alas ! too happy but for foes. 
Lived, and ran the race that nature set ; -j 

Of manhood's shape where she the mould did lose. 

But to the heavens that simple soul is fled. 
Which left, with such as covet Christ to know, 10 

Witness of faith that never could be dead ; 
Sent for our health, but not received so. 

Thus for our gilt this jewel have we lost ; 

The earth his bones, the heavens possess his ghost. 



A Song written by the Earl of Surrey to a Lady that 
Refused to Daunce with Him. 

EcHE beast can choose his fere according to his mynde, 15 
And eke can shewe a friendly chere lyke to their beastly kynde. 
A lyon saw I late as whyte as any snowe. 
Which semed well to leade the race, his port the same did 

showe ; 
Upon the gentle beast to gaze it pleased me. 
For still me thought he seemed well of noble bloud to be. 20 
And as he praunced before, still seeking for a make. 
As who would say, there is none here, I trowe will me forsake; 
I might perceive a woolfe as white as whales bone, 
A feairer beaste of fresher hue beheld I never none. 
Save that her lookes were coy, and froward eke hej* grace, 25 
Unto the whiche this gentle beast gan him avaunce apace. 

15. Fere. Companion. 21. Make. Mate 

16. Chere. Cheer. 26. Avaunce. Advance. 



SURREY. 43 

And with a becke full lowe he bowed at her feete, 
In humble wise, as you woulde say, I am too farre unmeete. 
But such a scornfull chere wherewith she him rewarded, 
Was never seene, I trowe, the like to such as well deserved. 
With that she start asyde well neere a foot or twaine, 5 

And unto him thus gan she say with spyte and great disdaine: 
"Lyon," she saide, "if thou hadest known my mind before. 
Thou hadst not spent thy travaile thus, nor all thy paine for 

lore. 
Do way I lete thee, wete thou shalt not play with me. 
Go range about, where thou maist find some meter fere for 

thee." 10 

With that he bet his tayle, his eyes began to flame, 
I might perceive his noble heart, much moved by the same. 
Yet saw I him refrayne, and eke his wrath asswage. 
And unto her thus gan he say, when he was past his rage: 
Cruel, you do me wronge, to set me thus so lighte, 15 

Without desert for my good will, to shew me thus despyte ; 
How can ye thus entreate a lyon of the race, 
That with his pawes, a crowned kynge devoured in the, place. 
Whose nature is to prey upon no simple foode, 
As long as he may sucke the flesh, and drink of noble bloud. 20 
If you be fayre and fresh, am I not of your hue, 
And for my vaunt I dare well say, my bloud is not untrue. 
For you yourself have heard, it is not long agoe, 
Sith that for love one of the race dyd end his life in wo. 
In tower strong, and hye for his assured truth, 25 

Whereas in tears he spent his breath, alas ! the more the ruth. 
Thys gentle beast so dyed, whom nothing could remove. 
But willingly to leese hys life for loss of his true love. 
Other there be, whose lives do linger still in payne. 
Against their wills preserved are, that woulde have dyed 30 

fayne. 
But now I do perceive, that nought it moveth you, 



1. Beck. Courtesy. 9. Wete. Know. 

9. liete. Leave. 11. Bet. Beat. 



44 SELECTED POEMS. 

My good entent, my gentle heart, nor yet my kinde so true; 

But that your will is such, to lure me to the trade. 

And other some full many yeres to trace by craft ye made. 

And thus behold our kyndes how that we differ farre, 

I seek my foes, and you your frendes do threten still with , 

warre. ^^ 

I faune where I am fed, you slay that sekes to you, '^H 

I can devour no yielding prey, you kill where you subdue. 
My kind is to desire the honour of the field, 
And you with bloud do slake your thyrste on such as to you 

yelde : 
Wherefore I would you wiste, that for your coyed lookes, 10 
I am no man that will be trapt, nor tangled with such hookes. 
And though some lust to love, where blamefull well they 

might. 
And to such beastes of current sort, that would have travail 

bright ; 
I will observe the lawe, that nature gave to me. 
To conquer such as will resist, and let the rest go free : 15 
And as a faulcon free, that foreth in the ayre. 
Which never fed on hand nor lure, nor for no stale doth care. 
While that I live and breathe, such shall my custome be, 
In wildness of the woodes, to seek my prey where pleaseth 

me : 
W here many one shall rue, that never made offence, 20 

Thus your refuse against my power, shall bote them no de- 
fence. 
And for revenge thereof, I vow and swear thereto, 
A thousand spoyles I shall commyt, I never thought to doe. 
And if to lyght on you my luck so good shall be, 
I shall be glad to feed on that, that would have fed on me. 25 
And thus farewelle unkind, to whom I bent and bowe, 
I would you wist, the ship is safe, that bare his sayles so 

lowe. 
Sith that a lyon's hart is for a wolfe no preye, 

6. Faune. Fawn. 



SUREEY. 45 

With bloody mouthe go slake your thirst on simple shepe I say. 
With more despyte and ire, than I can now expresse, 
Which to my payne, though I refrayn, the cause you may 

well guess. 
As for because my self was auctour of the same, 
It bootes me not that for my wrath, I shoulde disturb the 

same. 5 



How no Age is Content with his own Estate, and How the 

Age of Children is the Happiest, if they had 

Skill to Understand It. 

Layd in my quiet bed, in study as I were, 

I saw within my troubled head a heap of thoughts appear ; 

And every thought did shew so lyvely in myne eyes, 

That now I fight, and then I smilde, as cause of thoughts did 

ryse. 
I sawe the little boy, in thought how oft that he 10 

Did wishe of God, to scape the rod, a tall young man to be; 
The young man eake that feles his bones with paines apprest 
How he would be a riche old man, to live and lye at rest. 
The riche olde man that sees his end draw on so sore. 
How he would be a boy againe to live so much the more. 15 
Whereat full oft I smylde, to see how all those three, 
From boy to man, from man to boy, would chop and change 

degree. 
And musing thus, I think, the case is very strange, 
That man from wealth, to live in wo, doth ever seke to change. 
Thus thoughtfull as I lay, I sawe my withered skyn, 20 

How it doth shew my dented chewes, the flech was worn so 

thin, 
And eke my totheless chaps, the gates of my right way, 
That opes and shuttes, as I do speak, do thus unto me say ; 
The white and horish heres, the messengers of age, 24 

That shew like lines of true belief, that this life doth assuage, 



46 SELECTED POEMSc 

Biddes the lay hand, and feele them handing on thy cMn, 
The whiche doth write to ages past, the third now coming in. 
Hang up therefore the bitte, of thy yong wantom tyme, 
And thou that therein beaten art, the happiest life defyne : 
Whereat I sighed, and sayde, farewell my wonted toye, i 

Trusse up thy packe, and trudge from me to every little boy, 
And tell them thus from me, their time most happy is. 
If to theyr time they reason had, to know the truth of this. ' 



Dido and iEneas going to the Field. 

Iinslated from the Fourth Book of Virgil's Eneid.) 

/^At tire threshold of her chamber dore 
I The Carthage lords did on the queue attend ; 10 

\ The trampling steed, with gold and purple trapt, 

Chawing the foaming bit ther fercely stood. 

Then issued she, awayted with great train. 

Clad in a cloke of Tyre embroider'd rich. 

Her quiver hung behind her back, her tresse 15 

Knotted in gold, her purple vesture eke 

Buttned with gold. The Trojans of her train 

Before her go, with gladsome lulus, 

^neas eke, the goodliest of the route. 

Makes one of them, and joyneth close the throng„ 20 

Like when Apollo leaveth Lycia, 

His wintring place, and Xanthus' flood likewise 

To visit Del OS, his mother's mansion, 

Repairing eft and furnishing her quire : 

The Candians and the folke of Driopes 25 

With painted Agathyrisies, shoute and crye, 

Environing the altars round about ; 

When that he walkes upon Mount Cynthus' top 

His sparkled tresse represt with garlandes softe, 

Of tender leaves, and trussed up in golde ; 30 

His quivering darts clattering behinde his backe. 



SUEKEY. 47 

So fresh and lustie did ^neas seme — 

But to the hills and wild holtes when they came, 

From the rockes top and driver savage rose. 

Loe from the hills above, on thother side, 

Through the wide lawns they gan to take their course. 5 

The hartes likewise, in troops taking their flight, 

Raysing the dust, the mountain fast forsake. 

The childe lulus, blithe of his swift steede 

Amids the plain, now pricks by them, now these ; 

And to encounter, wisheth oft in minde, 10 

The foming boar insteede of fearful beasts. 

Or lion browne, might from the hill descend. 



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